Last week, in a stunning departure from protocol, the chief of Mossad – Israel’s national intelligence agency – singled out his female field agents for praise. “Women have a distinct advantage in secret warfare because of their ability to multitask,” Tamir Pardo said to Israel’s Lady Globes. He also added that women are “better at playing a role” and superior to men when it comes to “suppressing their ego in order to attain the goal.”

“Women are gifted at deciphering situations. Contrary to stereotypes, you see that women’s abilities are superior to men in terms of understanding the territory, reading situations, spatial awareness. When they’re good, they’re very good.”

It’s an interesting little piece at Forbes, despite me disagreeing with some of it. Being a daily driver in the habit of looking at other drivers as well as their vehicles, and having spent many days with women out hiking, I certainly think that their “spatial awareness” lags that of men. There might well be something in the rest of it. Girlfriends have taught me a few lessons about reading other people, and that men and women are wired differently is hardly a secret, despite me taking long enough to figure that one out.

In the end though, I sense that the Mossad chief is overlooking a fundamental aspect to the secret of his female spies: men are horny and they’ll say anything to get a girl into bed.

Bill Gross runs the world’s biggest bond fund at PIMCO with $236billion in funds under his control. He’s the kind of man whose opinion ought to be noted. This is what he tweeted today:

What he’s saying is that the money isn’t available to service national debts. If central banks don’t print up the cash, governments will default. They’ll print it up, but the cost will be massive price inflation.

It is a fact of modern life that most disasters are caused by actions taken, or words spoken, for totally differing matters. From Nation States to village communities, we are all governed and affected by the words and thoughts of a few, and if those words are spoken without at least a modicum of preparation or research, problems may compound and multiply.

The parish priest of St. Edmunds church in Southampton must be wishing that he had perhaps done a little more research into the twin topics of ‘relaxing exercises’ and ‘Mystic Religions’ before cancelling the proposed Yoga, Pilates and other Exercise classes he had previously given permission to take place in the church hall. The refusal, which was made on the grounds that yoga was against the Catholic Religion, was perhaps a little blunt, but it made the yoga instructor, Ms Cori Withell sufficiently annoyed to contact her local newspaper, and complain that the priest had got his knickers in a twist, or words to that effect.

This small news-filler piece, which would normally have disappeared without an echo, was picked up by national media and online organisations, and before either the priest or Ms. Withell knew more, their argument was being discussed on religious and news forums all around the globe.

Possible the best comment came from Pierre Bibby, chief executive of the charity British Wheel of Yoga, who said: “

Fox News news channel was playing live footage of the pursuit when the suspect leapt out of his car and began running away down a dirt track. As producers and viewers watched, the man staggered away from his vehicle, ran a short distance into the grass and then produced a gun. Shephard Smith, Fox News’s afternoon anchor, was providing a running commentary as the suspect lurched away from the vehicle and viewers could hear his producers gasping in horror as the man shot himself. Mr Smith shouted “get off it, get off it” as it became clear the man intended to kill himself but the station did not cut away in time and broadcast the suspect crumpling to the ground. Fox went to a commercial break and when it returned to the studio a visibly shaken Mr Smith apologised to viewers, saying “that didn’t belong on TV”.

Well, did it?

Why is life to be sanitised in this way?

Who has determined we cannot see this? Maybe if we did show alleged criminals meeting their end by their own hand it might deter some others from following this way of life – and death. Of course there is a quite separate agenda in play here in Europe – this is being used to show us how wicked the vile Fox News is. Did you know that they eat children alive after the O’Reilly factor is broadcast? Yes, it seems this is true. Life is brutal and I am querying WHETHER it was so wrong to broadcast this? Shall we all live in manicured cocoons when it comes to the News?

My congratulations to all those TENS OF THOUSANDS of proud Ulster people who commemorated the signing of the Covenant 100 years ago. As one would expect, the event was peaceful and a demonstration that we remain BRITISH, to the chagrin of the usual whingeing suspects. I didn’t go myself as I have no interest in parades. I also see little reason to remember the past if one does not learn from it. I see plenty to celebrate in 100 years of British Northern Ireland but given that it now contains the IRA’s delegates in its government and continually appeases rabid Irish Nationalism, I figure I will skip celebrating that bit. I suppoons there are many lessons one can learn but from my perspective those parading have failed to understand that the one thing the British Government respects most is violence and civil unrest. Republicans get this and have excelled at rebelling, as is their wont. The steadfast loyalty of Ulster’s British people has been treated too often with cynical contempt by the goons at Westminster

Still, 100 and not out is worth a celebration….CHEERS. Our day has come…

The Centenary of the Ulster Covenant is being celebrated by the Unionist Community. One Hundred years ago hundreds of thousands of Unionists signed their names in a display of regional defiance of home rule legislation proposed for Ireland. It helped lay the basis for the partition compromise (one might unkindly say appeasement of Protestant domination of NI).

The men signed the covenant, the women signed the declaration. And they didn’t run flowers into the country to back up their position, they ran in guns. Remind those who think it was only the republican side at times that placed emphasis on the bullet over the ballot.

I suppose one of the historical surprises of the 100 year period is not how much violence there has been (of which there was too much) but how much violence there could have been had events escalated beyond all control.

After a century the important thing is to look forward as much as looking back. Determined people who disagree can do so in a civil way. A new covenant for all? I don’t think everyone is there yet, but at least an agreement to disagree. And that is worth celebrating, today and a hundred years from now.

***New and Exclusive***
Here's one for any budding Sherlock Holmes out there!
The strange case of Anna Soubry's mi… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

THE PRICE OF REWARDING TERRORISM

You do not defeat terrorism by rewarding terrorists, regardless of how many bleeding heart liberals argue otherwise. Want to know where that flawed approach leads to? Read UNIONISM DECAYED 1997-2007 - It's my first book and it explains what happens when you seeek to appease terrorists and call it peace. It's available right now for ATW readers so make sure you get your copy by emailing the editor! This is the book that dissents from the herd mentality that doing wrong can lead to being right. It doesn't and this book spells out WHY.

Copyright & copy; 2010 A Tangled Web (All rights reserved).Comments on articles here are unmoderated, and do not necessarily reflect the views of A Tangled Web or David Vance. Comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise unacceptable may be deleted by the Editor. However the fact a particular comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by David Vance of the views expressed therein.